1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a status-indicating device, and more particularly to a scanning status-indicating device for an automatic document feeder.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Scanners are widely used in computer image processing. Basically, scanners include sheet-feed scanners and flatbed scanners. The flatbed scanners usually have higher scanning quality and are preferred by the users. However, using a flatbed scanner is troublesome when a lot of documents are to be scanned. Accordingly, an automatic document feeder (ADF) is developed to be used with a flatbed scanner. The ADF can automatically feed document sheets one by one to the flatbed scanner to be scanned.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional ADF 1 includes a body shell 11, a document-feeding path 10 formed on the bottom side of the body shell 11, and rollers 14, 16, 18 and 20 for urging the document sheet to be moved in the feed path 10. The document-feeding path 10 is formed by an inner shell 102 and an outer shell 104. The document-feeding path 10 further includes a scanning area 12, which is an opening formed on the bottom of the outer shell 104. A document 34 is urged by the rollers 14, 16, 18 and 20 to be moved in the document-feeding path 10. The document 34 enters the document-feeding path 10 from the entry 24 and leaves it from the outlet 26. The ADF 1 is mounted on a flatbed scanner 40 and the scanning area 12 is aligned to the reading unit (not shown) of the scanner 40. While the document 34 passes through the scanning area 12, it will be scanned by the scanner 40.
While being scanned, the document 34 is illuminated by the light source 28. However, since the scanner 40 is covered by the automatic document feeder 1, the scanning process cannot be observed and monitored by the user.
It is then desirable to have the scanning process being observed by the user.